INTERVIEW: Horrified

With their third album Allure of the Fallen out this month, Mark Corcoran-Lettice talks to epic death metal band Horrified

By Mark Corcoran-Lettice
on Friday, September 29th, 2017

Horrified have already made a name for themselves on the metal circuit, with two full-lengths to their name. With their third album Allure of the Fallen however marking a rebirth for the band -boasting a more ambitious sound, new line-up and new record deal – I caught up with bandleader Dan Alderson to find out more.

Discussing the band’s shift away from more traditional death metal on Allure of the Fallen, Alderson notes, “the ambitions for the band in terms of material have indeed changed dramatically. We started as a straight-up Old School Death Metal band and have progressed into melodic black/death metal. In terms of comparability, it’s rather like how bands such as Death and Edge of Sanity evolved and progressed from record to record.”

With the band’s previous line-up having been forced into hiatus due to assorted work and personal commitments, Allure of the Fallen also finds Horrified debuting a new line-up. “I reached out to Lee [Anderson] because he had covered bass duties for us on a mini-tour in April 2016, and James [Charlton] because of us knowing each other – I had admired his drum chops for a long time. We’ve recently recruited a good pal of ours on second guitars now too, Dan Jordan. Now that things have ironed out for me personally and such, we are looking to be more of a regular band again.”

this album was intentionally written to be one complete piece

The band’s growing ambition is evident on the seven lengthy, sweeping pieces that make up Allure of the Fallen. “It was all about broadening our scope and tightening things up even more in terms of the overall production and performances. Unlike our last two records, which were just a bunch of songs lumped together, this album was intentionally written to be one complete piece. The album’s structure is more akin to a doom metal style in a sense of building on themes and linking them together to create an epic sense of arrangement and taking the listener through a journey, rather than the more chaotic structures commonly found in death metal.”

The band’s intent that the album stand up as a complete piece-up of work also expresses itself in the striking, dramatic artwork provided by Adam Burke. “I knew the album needed an epic landscape piece to adorn the front of the record, I discovered Adam Burke from checking out his portfolio after being very impressed with the cover painting for the latest Vektor record. As soon as I delved more into his work I contacted him immediately.”

Alderson also notes the importance of their new record label, American-based Shadow Kingdom Records, in Horrified’s new ambitions. “We have a multiple album deal with them, so when we got that deal it really did make me get into gear and want to resurrect the band after the album release. The label are incredibly great to work with. Things are so smooth and done to a really professional level, Tim McGrogan is doing a lot for us as a band.”

Although their headline show at Trillians on Thursday 12th October is their only currently confirmed live date, Alderson tells me, “we are looking to get out there a lot more and are pretty confident the new record should generate some interest from promoters. We are also making some provisional plans to book UK tour towards the end of the year to promote the new record while it’s still fresh.”